Sworn, Stained, and Justified
by DoctoressOctopus
Summary: Twenty truths about Sasuke Uchiha, from birth to twenty-five. Failures, triumphs, and everything in between. Spoilers up to around chapter 401. One-shot.


**Sasuke's mother chose his name.**

Fugaku had reserved the right to name the firstborn, more so because it was a son, and promised the naming of their second child to his wife, whatever the sex. Mikoto took her time in thinking, and in the seventh month announced that she liked "Sasuke."

A little puzzled, he asked what the name would be if it turned out a girl; but Mikoto only smiled that small smile and told him to trust her, that it was a maternal sort of thing that told her she was carrying a boy.

**By the age of eight, Sasuke had been told no less than a dozen times that he strongly favored his mother in appearance.**

As young as he was, he hadn't seen the similarity. Whenever an aunt or uncle or grandparent voiced the resemblance with a grin and a laugh, Sasuke only smiled politely, though not without puzzlement, as he had been raised to do.

Even had he felt inclined to ask after eventually growing out of his shyness and propriety, there was no one after the clan's massacre who could give an opinion on the matter; stay-at-home mothers of the Uchiha name generally lived more secluded lives, at least as far as the rest of the village was concerned, and so no living soul other than Sasuke and his brother could recall Mikoto's face in vivid detail.

**Prior to his attack on Orochimaru, Sasuke remembers smiling only once in the two and a half years he spent in Sound.**

It had been irritating, all the precautions he'd had to take for the sake of one technique. With up to weeks sometimes passing between sessions, he would often spend most of his precious time just building up to where he had last left off; that was the price to pay when he had so many factors to consider. Not only could no one see him training, but he had to carefully balance his lies and avoid contradictions when speaking to Orochimaru – Sasuke was free to come and go as he pleased around and outside the lair, but taking too much time away was asking for suspicion – and he had to keep an especially watchful eye on any injuries he might sustain. Kabuto knew the difference between fire burns and Chidori burns, so even if Sasuke had all the free time in the world to train himself, it would mean nothing if he couldn't disguise the raw skin of his left palm as a byproduct of Orochimaru's instruction rather than his own.

But Sasuke was patient – he had to be – and then the day finally came.

The effort now took little more than a thought. Just enough concentration and the chakra buildup began immediately, surging outward an instant later according to whatever distance Sasuke had mentally programmed, within a certain limit. He did this now, the last attempt that his time limit would allow for the day, and the Chidori blade shot forward to pierce three trees and a rock before he stopped and held it, sustaining it in a state of complete immobilization for several seconds before allowing it to crackle out.

Now he needed some sort of projectile…

Slowly, as if his muscles weren't used to the position, Sasuke smiled, but barely – not a smirk, not a sneer, but a genuine sign that he was actually glad. Orochimaru's days – and, subsequently, Itachi's – were numbered, and only Sasuke knew the approximation.

**Sasuke has a skill for sewing.**

While he bought his clothes like most, he took it upon himself to attach the Uchiha clan symbol to the back of every shirt he wore. In accordance with tradition, his mother had been the one to do it when he was younger, but with her gone – with everyone gone – Sasuke was the only one left to fill her place. Part of his undertaking the task was indeed the product of Uchiha pride and obligation towards his family's customs, but another part of it – and he never acknowledged the thought, even to himself – was because to substitute even that small duty of hers, whether by going to a tailor or asking a favor, would feel too much like he was replacing her, or at least the memory of her.

**In Sound, Sasuke more or less fashioned his own wardrobe.**

He was initially given the default outfit that most Sound underlings wore: the dark brown shirt under a short-sleeved white. Sasuke's dislike for it was immediate. He abandoned the undershirt completely and cut the sleeves off the other, slicing the front open halfway down the chest to get rid of the stifling sense it otherwise produced.

Several months into his stay, he happened to come across an abandoned bedroom with a closet full of stiff clothes; most were a bit long for him, but he took them anyway. They were long-sleeved and loose, the front left bare on some and fastened by a zipper on others. Sasuke developed a preference for the former, only making the changes of adding a small uchiwa to the collar. He took the belt he had been given (and at first had cast aside) and frayed the edges, working the stiffness out of its length and wearing it in a different fashion than the rest of those who donned it, a move of practicality as much as it was one of general preference.

The next time he saw Kabuto, the medic-nin commented, slightly amused, that Sasuke had apparently discovered Kimimaro's store of clothes.

**The growth drugs that Sasuke received from Kabuto did, in fact, have side effects.**

Before being given the first dose, Sasuke was told that he would experience some slight discomfort afterwards. He awoke that night to chest pains and stomach cramps so severe that the pain made him retch, but his muscles were constricted so tightly that he couldn't even vomit correctly, leaving him to empty shudders. Even had he been willing to sacrifice his dignity and go to Kabuto for help in numbing the discomfort, Sasuke was immobilized, partly by the pain and partly by the muscles that refused to uncoil, and was left to the burn in his chest and the hot bile licking the back of his throat until an hour after dawn when the effects finally subsided.

**There's a scar on Sasuke's right side in memory of his first summoning.**

Sasuke discovered rather quickly that the disrespect he generally passed towards Orochimaru and the other Oto-nin had no place in the relationship between the proud serpents and himself – at least not while he was still learning. Kabuto healed the injury like everything else, but the three-inch fang mark still curves over Sasuke's hipbone to this day.

**It wasn't uncommon for Sasuke to forget his birthday.**

Between the ages of eight and twelve, he took to training especially hard during the week of his birthday to try and drive it from his mind, as it only served as a reminder that yet another year had passed without catching up to _him_. It sometimes failed when his admiring classmates brought it up, but for that reason he took to being more reclusive than usual until the day had passed.

During his time with Team Seven, he had no such hope. Naruto insisted on teasing him about it and Sakura pelted the day with attempts at a date and finding out what he wanted – and while Sasuke outwardly scorned them both, those were in truth the best birthdays he'd had in years.

Under Orochimaru, Sasuke didn't have to work to forget. Weekdays, months, they had no place in those dark days; time passed according to Sasuke's gain in strength and skill, and every July it took him several days to realize he was one year older than the last time he had checked.

**Collectively,** **Sasuke lost four pints of blood during his stay at Sound, although he'll never know it.**

Most of that was during his first year.

**Sasuke had known all along that grief would inevitably accompany his revenge on Itachi, once exacted.**

He just never expected it to hurt so much.

**Sasuke's first four kills all took place in under twenty-four hours.**

Utatane Koharu, Mitokado Homura, Danzou, and Uchiha Madara, in that order.

**Sasuke received six bone-breaking injuries during his teenage years.**

The first was when Itachi broke his wrist.

The second was when Naruto managed to snap a rib during their battle at the Valley of the End.

The third was during training at Sound, which left him with a broken radius and fractured ulna in his right arm.

The fourth and fifth were again from Naruto: two ribs, this time, in the same blow, and an ankle in another, all along with a dislocated shoulder and a number of smaller wounds.

The last came courtesy of Sakura's chakra-laden fist. Sasuke's nose was effectively smashed flat by the single hit, the pain of which alone nearly cost him his consciousness. The same hand put his face back together afterward.

**A week after he returned to Konoha, Sasuke came down with the flu.**

And of all things, he'd figured. Sakura voiced her suspicion that he had purposely contracted it to avoid further company, but he could honestly say he had no idea where he'd gotten it from. She tended to him the entire time, unnecessary though he figured it was, and ended up sleeping in the chair at his bedside more than once.

The next time they fell asleep together in his bedroom would be their wedding night.

**In spite of everything Sasuke had been through, Konoha gave no exceptions, and so he was required to take the Chuunin exam over again to move up from the title of genin.**

He had the feeling that Tsunade hadn't fought very hard (if at all) against the rule; on the contrary, he was certain that she _wanted_ him to take the thing, if only to delay his gratification and prolong the teasing from the other ninja his age, all of whom – except Naruto – were chuunin or higher. He flew through it on his first try – second, technically, if one included the test he had taken at thirteen – along with Naruto and the final match ended up being between the two of them. It was a friendly match, almost, compared to their other battles (they mutually agreed that neither the Mangekyou Sharingan nor chakra from the kyuubi – at least to where its tails manifested – was to be used, partly as a result of Kakashi's passive threats), but the fight was nonetheless halted for fear of further damage to the stadium.

Both received the title and then a couple months later rose to jounin, which, for the most part, abolished the others' rights to mock either of them.

**By the time Sasuke turned twenty-one, his eyesight was half of what it used to be.**

When Kakashi lost all sight in his left eye three years prior, Sasuke had swallowed his pride and confided the Mangekyou's effects to Sakura. Despite her best efforts and the monthly visits to her office – bi-weekly by the time he hit twenty – Sasuke's vision continued to decline. The headaches were the worst part of it, and at first the most frequent side effect was his becoming shortsighted for a time after extended use of the Sharingan or when stressed. But over time, more dangerous symptoms arose – he began to have blackouts, moments where he'd suddenly go completely blind anywhere from a few seconds to nearly ten minutes. The once occasional migraine became as common as his lesser headaches; something as lightly agitating as dust could cause one or both eyes to cry blood as abundantly as when he used Amaterasu.

Not until Sasuke was on the very edge of complete blindness did Sakura at last make a breakthrough. A two-part surgery with an unpredictable success rate, it was a gamble, but having little to lose, he agreed to it. Two weeks later, his vision had improved significantly. Once again around the halfway mark, it was far from perfect – ten years ago he would have called it awful, and he was actually prescribed glasses for more trying tasks like reading – but it was sight, he could function normally, he could _see_, and in an added stroke of fortune the Sharingan was unaffected. It was better than nothing by a long shot.

"…What about Kakashi?" he asked sometime after. Sakura frowned.

"I thought so, too, so I talked him into an examination while you were recovering." Slowly, she shook her head. "Maybe if I'd known sooner, but… his eye seems to be completely unresponsive. Honestly, I don't see any hope for it, but I'm still going through my notes."

Once again, Sasuke's luck had been just enough for him to scrape by and cheat fate.

**Sasuke received – gave – his first kiss at twenty-two.**

He still remembers that strangely relieving sensation of breaking poise, of Sakura's hair between his fingers, her cold nose on his cheek, and her moment of stunned stillness before she returned the affection. He remembers all of it, and he's sure he always will.

**Sasuke's first pet was a cat.**

It came in the form of Naruto showing up on his doorstep one rainy night, soaked to the skin and toting an equally soggy black and white kitten under his jacket. Sasuke's immediate answer was no, but Naruto persisted, saying that the thing only scratched and bit him when he tried to handle it, that Sakura had just left on a mission, that Kakashi was a dog person, and so on and so forth. Reluctantly, and partly suspecting that it was all merely a ruse to see if that certain rumor about his affinity for cats was true, Sasuke accepted, insisting that Naruto ask around for an owner in the morning.

Days passed without a claim. By the end of the first week, Sasuke had inadvertently named him – Neko, as he was so original. By the third, the cat had taken to sleeping on his legs at night. By the end of the first month, Neko was commonly labeled "Sasuke's cat" and had moved up to the pillow, preferring the spot directly beside his owner's head.

**Prior to Tsunade stepping down from Hokage,** **Sasuke was the only member of Team Seven – minus Kakashi – who had to call her by her proper title.**

He had mistaken familiarity for lenience. Sakura simply addressed her as "shishou" and Naruto was downright disrespectful, so if _they_ could get away with it, why couldn't Sasuke?

He'd still been recovering in the hospital after his fight with Naruto – the one that had preceded Sasuke's return home – when Tsunade stopped by. In the midst of a strained conversation, he flat-out called her "Tsunade" rather than his previous "Godaime;" a second later the back of his head struck the bed's headboard, his forehead throbbing and his mind spinning from the force and speed with which he'd been knocked backward.

Most likely, his attitude had been the problem more so than his lack of manners, but he stuck with the title afterwards anyway, only rarely adding _–sama_ to it when necessary.

**Sasuke lost his virginity two weeks before his twenty-fifth birthday.**

It was a fact that his mother would have been proud of (his father more so had it been with another Uchiha), but parental approval hadn't helped in the least to make him feel less nervous. While Sasuke's expression and body language were the typical shades of complete self-control and confidence prior to it – he had defeated one of the Sannin and several members of Akatsuki; what was _this_, after that? – there was a part of him (a very _large_ part) that had his pulse higher than usual and his muscles feeling tight and heavy.

His previous reasoning of saving it until marriage – _saving_ it? What the hell? All that had done was earn him constant teasing. (Damn it, he was panicking.) – suddenly seemed unfound and unfair. Now here he was with no idea of what he was doing. Would it be instinctive? Did it just happen? What?

Sasuke had never felt so stupid in his life.

So it was relieving to find that Sakura seemed no more learned about it than he. They were both slow, both hesitant, but only she had the courage to speak up for the both of them and say that she had no expectations about what would happen.

Which was good, because in Sasuke's opinion there were things that could have gone better that first time.

**Tardiness is one of Sasuke's pet peeves.**

The latest he's ever been to anything is ten minutes, and that was only once. The rest of the time, he makes a point to be somewhere exactly on schedule or early.

Kakashi is the only one whom Sasuke doesn't outwardly nag for being late.


End file.
